This invention relates to improved methods of and apparatus for machining rail bearing surfaces.
This invention has particular but not exclusive application to in-situ machining of upper and lower slew bearing rails of large earth moving machines with slewing superstructures, and for illustrative purposes particular reference will be made hereinafter to the in-situ machining of such rails. It is to be understood however that this invention could be utilized in other applications such as the machining of linear rails as well as circular rails.
Various techniques may be used to correct rail flatness, including re-machining of the rail surfaces or the rail mounting pads or the rails or segments thereof may be removed and remounted on their mountings with a variable thickness grout interposed therebetween. However the latter in-situ technique requires dismantling of the slew bearing and thus it is time consuming and expensive and can be justified only in the case of severe flatness deviations all around the bearing.